12.30am - A
dramatic stand-off is unfolding at Kingsnorth power station in Kent where
climate change campaigners have boarded a moving bulk freighter carrying coal to
Britain's most controversial power plant. Three women are swimming in the river
Medway in front of the massive freighter and are stopping it loading while
climbers are hanging off the side of the ship. Dozens of police officers and a
helicopter are on the scene.
Greenpeace
volunteers intercepted the freighter using rigid inflatable speedboats just
after midnight this morning. As the ship sped towards Kingsnorth the campaigners
attached climbing ladders to the vessel and scaled the 15 metre hull. Three
teams comprising nine people succeeded in boarding the ship. They have scaled
the huge E.ON-branded funnel and the towering foremast, and are demanding that
the cargo turns back. The protesters have enough food and water to stay for
several days.
A local mother
and Greenpeace member is swimming in the Medway in front of the Kingsnorth
jetty, attempting to prevent the ship from docking and unloading. Mother of
three Emma Gibson - from the nearby
town of Whitstable - is with two other women in the
water. Before setting out on her swim she said:
"We're going to
swim right in front of the approaching ship and try to stop this massive coal
shipment reaching Kingsnorth power station, because coal is the most
climate-wrecking fuel there is. Every tonne of carbon counts, and E.ON's ship is
delivering enough coal to pump tens of thousands of tonnes of CO2 into the
atmosphere. There's no way we can stop climate change if power companies are
allowed to keep on burning so much coal. I'm terrified by the scale of the
problem my children will have to deal with. We have to give the next generation
a chance of beating global warming, and that's why I'm putting my body in the
way of that ship."
Land next to the
existing plant at Kingsnorth has been earmarked for the construction of the
first new coal-fired power station in Britain for 30 years. The highly
controversial plans have sparked a series of protests, but this is the first
time a coal shipment to the site has been blocked and boarded. The government
claims a new Kingsnorth plant will be cleaner, but in reality under the new
policy, announced in April, it would still pump three-quarters of its emissions
into the atmosphere for years to come - six million tonnes of CO2 every
year.
Sarah
Shoraka, a Greenpeace volunteer
who is hanging off the foremast of the freighter, said:
"Scientists are
telling us we can't beat climate change if we keep burning coal, and yet Ed
Miliband's new policies would still allow E.ON to build the dirtiest new power
station in Britain for thirty years. The experts
say we have the technologies we need to slash emissions and power Britain
with renewable energy and more efficient use of cleaner fuels, it just needs the
politicians to give them the green light. New coal plants that emit huge amounts
of carbon can never be the answer."
She
continued:
"A sensible
energy policy would focus on getting rid of the appalling waste in our system so
that we can power Britain more effectively using less
fuel, while harnessing the huge potential of clean energy projects like the
London Array offshore wind farm. We can do this, but first we'll need Ed
Miliband to set tough new CO2 pollution limits for all new power stations, in
line with what the science demands. As it is, the government's half measures
would still allow E.ON to build a new plant at Kingsnorth which would emit six
million tonnes of CO2 a year. That one power station would have double the
annual emissions of Nepal with its 30 million people."
The Greenpeace
members on board the ship say by stopping the coal cargo being burned they are
protecting people and property around the world from the devastating effects of
climate change.
UK
decisions on coal have an international impact. This year's international
meetings on climate change, designed to prepare the groundwork for the summit in
Copenhagen this December, have been uniformly
unproductive, and the success of the Copenhagen talks is now highly uncertain. Brown
will need to do everything in his power to give the UK and
EU negotiating positions political and scientific credibility, both with his
policies and his presence, if there is to be a chance of a meaningful agreement.
The G8 meeting
in Italy on the July
8th provides a key opportunity to go into Copenhagen with some
progress having been made. Greenpeace urges the prime minister to seize this
opportunity to show some leadership and rescue his
legacy.
ENDS
Greenpeace press
office - 07932 842266 or 07801 212967 or 0207 865
8255
Video and stills
available
To arrange a
live video broadcast interview - using Skype - with people occupying the
foremast, call press office.
Notes:
*
Government
projections for climate impacts in the UK were released last week, showing
the enormous threat posed by continued high emissions. Kent is
due to undergo some of the most extreme changes, with projections for South
Eastern England's temperatures in 2050 ranging from a 1.3 to a 3.3 degree
increase. Much of the Kent coast is vulnerable to increased
flooding, including the Hoo peninsula where Kingsnorth power station stands.
* The single greatest threat to
the climate comes from burning coal. Coal-fired generation is historically
responsible for most of the fossil-fuel CO2 in the air today, about half of all
fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions globally.1
* Coal-fired power generation
is the most environmentally damaging means of generating electricity yet
devised. In fact, in carbon terms, coal is the dirtiest fuel known to man.2
* As we close old coal-fired
and nuclear power stations in the next decade we will lose capacity currently
providing around a quarter of our electricity output. But Gordon Brown committed
to European legal targets which require us to generate up to 40% of our
electricity from renewables alone by 2020, and the UK also has fairly ambitious
energy efficiency targets.3 According to Europe's leading independent energy
experts, Poyry, if the UK was to hit these existing renewables and efficiency
targets, there will be no ‘energy gap.' In other words, we can keep the lights
on and cut emissions, and in the long run bring down fuel bills too - all
without any new coal-fired plants.4
* The world's pre-eminent
climate scientist, Professor James Hansen, who is director of the NASA Goddard
Institute for Space Studies, is so concerned about plans for new coal plants in
Britain that he has campaigned to
stop Kingsnorth. He argued that with the Kingsnorth decision Ministers have the
potential to influence "the future of the
planet."5
* The government's own climate
advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, advised the Prime Minister in
December 2008 that no coal station - old or new - should be allowed to operate
without fully functioning CCS by the early 2020s.
* Emissions Performance
Standards for all new power stations introduced immediately that rule our
unabated coal plants, with a tapered standard for 2020 that would apply equally
to old plant, would provide a cast iron guarantee that high emissions would be
illegal. Only a measure such as this avoids the risk of high-carbon lock in and
ensures that only low-carbon power is generated.
1
Dr. James E.
Hansen, open letter to Gordon Brown, December 2007 http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/letter-to-the-prime-minister-20071219
2
IPCC Working Group III Fourth
Assessment Report chapter 4 table 4.9
Supercritical coal plants emit 710gCO2/Kwh
compared to 404gCO2/Kwh
for CCGT (gas), for example.
3
The UK
efficiency target is to achieve an 18% reduction in end-use energy demand
against current rates of increase.
4
http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto073120082322523374&page=2
5
Dr. James E. Hansen, open letter to
Gordon Brown, December 2007 http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/letter-to-the-prime-minister-20071219
